posted 21 November 2003 02:26 AM EDT (US)
Hope this helps!
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Choosing Gaia
If you want to be 'different' that everyone else, then Gaia is the way to go. She is by far the least played Atlantean civilisation.
She is essentially a defensive civilisation. So if you like Hades defending and Zues's booming, then she is a nice Atlantean choice for you.
Gaia's bonuses
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Special Bonus:
All buildings are surrounded by Lush Terrain.
Lush terrain can not be built on by enemies.
Bonuses:
Buildings regenerate hitpoints
Fishing ships, Caravans more hitpoints & cheaper
Economic bonuses cheaper
God Power: Gaia's Forest. Generates a forest, of which you can harvest from and use as a wall. This power is similar to the Dwarven Mine. Also, you can use Gaia's Forest numerous times in a game.
Technology: Channels Ability. +20% Villager Speed
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As most of you would already know, Gaia is a defensive civilisation and her special units are her villagers. Now IMO this makes her harder to play because her military bonus is more indirect than other civilisations. E.G. Kronos specialises in Siege and Myth, well his bonuses are farely direct as you get a discount on these units. However with Gaia, you need to utilise her economic bonuses so that you are constantly 'ahead' of your opponent and so you will eventually out-econ, out-number your opponent.
So what does this mean? In order to get a military advantage out of her, you must master her economy. I play Gaia many times in team games and I often find myself ALWAYS with extra resources and I can constantly be getting upgrades. To be honest, I thin she is better in team games and maybe not the nest choice if you just want to constantly win in 1v1. But she is interesting and different, so of you’re ever bored of Oranos or Zues, try Gaia!
Lets start from the beginning.
The Archaic Age
Firstly important to judge your enemy. E.g. don’t risk a late advance if you can see you are up against an aggressive Loki rusher. If you see you are against Egyptian/Hades (generally defensive civs) then GO FOR THE LATER ADVANCE. IT IS ALWAYS WORTH IT.
In archaic, you should:
-Use her forest GP. It’s a great economic and defensive GP, it’s not worth using all four on an organic wall. Use 2 just near your TC (not too close of you know that forest fire will be coming) and 2 around your most forward towers. A forest protected tower will always serve you well. Don’t go to other forests until you’ve chopped down your 2 forests near your TC. If you’ve taken the battle out of your own base, then you may be able to cut down your tower defending forests. But by the time you exhaust your 2 forests near your TC, the regular forests will do you fine, provided you have the wood cutting upgrades.
-Scout your surrounding area well before you send your oracles to find their base. Its more important that you find all the gold mines and settlements, because in the early game your enemy will be trying to take these off you. A good player knows how to beat a defensive player. So don’t let him steal your land!
-In transition to classical: build an economic guild and have a total of 3 houses, put them and your temple around one of your towers (so by now you should have 3 of your 4 towers defended!) in transition, get the 3 econ upgrades for hunting, gold and wood. Unless you see that there is not much hunting on the map, you won’t need husbandry just yet. Remember that it is not as beneficial for Atlanteans! Realise that the cheaper upgrades benefit you in that - they let you get those upgrades earlier than your ally The fact that you save resources is not the only good thing about it!
Against an aggressive player – advance with around 5 on food, 2 on wood and 2 on gold. Aim for a moderate advance time.
Against a more defensive player – GO FOR TWO TC’S! Be very careful how you do this, don’t try to build it too early, you find that your in a mess with wasted TC time and not enough to build a temple. Do it like this - First get 3 on food, one on gold and two on wood, send your 6th to a settlement you want to take, if your think they are going to raid you early, take one that is near you. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, go for one near the centre of the map! After this build another 2-3 citizens, and use you TC builder to put your temple near your 2nd TC. This BO isn’t designed for water however.
This will leave you with a later advance time, but IT’S ALL WORTH IT.
On water its not hard to have a large fishing force early in the game, you’ve got cheaper fishing ships and faster wood gathering!
The classical Age
If you really like Oceanus’s techs and his healing abilities, then by all means, go for it. But on land I highly recommend Leto for the Automaton. Put your TC on repeat build citizen, if you’ve got 2, repeat build them both, your economy BOOMS! Aim to have 5 on food, 6 on wood and 6 on gold before the heroic age. With 2 TC’s this is very easily done. BUT WATCH YOUR POPULATION. I often make the mistake of getting too many citizens and finding myself with a much smaller army than my enemy.
If you’ve put your 2nd TC forward, then put your counter rax here along with your temple. Put up a spider lair near them. With the spiders and the TC fire, your opponent shouldn’t be able to take them down. And this is great because there is nothing worse than losing your rax in classical. With no rax, you have no army production. With no army, you lose.
Get a nice mixture of Katapeltes and Turma, throw in plenty of Automatons too, again the 2 TC’s benefit you (the favour). Use you infantry and Mus to defend your base from raiders, and raid yourself with Turma. Get the tower upgrade too.
Other than this do everything you would normally do in classical. Expand and raid. But again WATCH YOUR POP IT IS CRUCIAL YOU DON’T GET TOO MANY CITIZENS. They take up 3 population remember. Gaia’s archaic tech would be a good idea towards mid-classical age when you can afford it.
By late classical, get the next wood, and gold upgrades from your economic guild., and plow if you need it. You’ll probably need husbandry by now too.
The Heroic Age
This is where you can be really flexible to counter your enemy’s army. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEIA UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE IN CLASSICAL AND YOU NEED BEHEMOTH TO FINISH YOUR ENEMY OFF. But this is not common.
Put a Hesperides tree near your rax where it cannot be captured by the enemy, if you have plenty of gold, get some dryads, they don’t waste your favour and are a nice addition to your army. Contarius are a nice choice with Theia, they may not be the toughest units but they can be effective when massed against most units except infantry. They are excellent as heroes.
THIS IS THE TIME TO SAVE YOUR FAVOUR. Remember that you want to be always ahead of your enemy, and you’ll find some games you’ll need to get to titan age, so don’t get carried away with Stymphalian Birds, they are a whopping 25 favour. And don’t be stupid and use them as raiders, when separated from an army, they are slaughtered easily. Trust me.
You usually don’t need the third econ upgrades unless you see the game is really going to drag on. Aim for a MAXIMAM of 20 citizens. No more. Try to take at last half of the map now, if you really can’t do it, then go for Titan age ASAP.
I often find myself not long in heroic and I am always surprised at how many resource I have. Aim to get to mythic before your opponent. Don’t forget to upgrade your men however.
The Mythic Age
Before I say anything, a credit to ES for making this age a lot more active in the x pack. It’s a great age! If you see you are taking the map back, go with Atlas. You can overwhelm your enemy with excellent Argus and his mighty Implode. Unless you are desperate for a titan, upgrade all your men to champion and make sure you have at least the second line of armoury upgrades.
Now the different side of the story is if you are stuck inside your base with only 2 of the 6 settlements on the map. Two words. Hekate. Titan.
Put up plenty of fortresses in your base and leave a distinct space for your titan gate to be built. Wall off any major entrances to your base, and get the medium wall upgrade. Keep you econ booming right until that Titan gate GP appears. Place it in that defended spot in your base and call all your villies to it. GET MYTHIC REJUVENTAION. See why you need that favour now? (30 for the Hekate tech, 50 for secrets of the titans). Put your 2nd Hesperides next to the gate.
Bring your army back to defend your Titan gate – obviously.
Make sure you use the shift waypoints to task your citizens back to work after they have built the gate - Your Titan will need some aid if your opponent is also in Mythic. In team games, you titan will give you an advantage on the battlefield, but if it’s a 3v3 or more, the battle WILL GO ON. In a 1v1, once your titan is released GO FORTH AND CRUSH YOUR ENEMY! AND CLAIM THAT LAND AS LAND OF GAIA!
